Cotton farmers pin hopes on rain

Reporter-News Photo by Ronald W. Erdrich
Jerry Holle strips cotton on one of his Runnels County fields in October 2007. Area cotton farmers are hoping spring brings enough rain to plant this year's crop.

County 2005 2006 2007

Coleman 3,900 1,100 2,000

Fisher 78,800 12,100 115,000

Haskell 104,000 29,200 94,500

Howard 123,700 57,600 182,000

Jones 70,800 6,500 115,000

Kent 3,200 1,200 3,200

Knox 60,000 40,700 N/A

Mitchell 53,000 20,300 76,000

Nolan 59,800 17,400 87,600

Runnels 57,800 16,600 76,000

Scurry 69,200 20,300 110,000

Shackelford 1,500 600 2,300

Stonewall 6,400 600 N/A

Taylor 20,800 3,800 14,000

Throckmorton 2,900 200 1,000

Young 700 500 N/A

Source: United States Department of Agriculture

*2008 figures not released until May 2009

Although agriculture experts are forecasting a dismal growing season for cotton, farmers remain hopeful that spring rains will bring enough moisture to the thirsty soil to make the spring planting deadlines.

Texas, whose 3-year average cotton production surpassed 6.2 million bales for the years 2006 through 2008, is the leading cotton-producing state in the nation, and cotton is a top commodity for Big Country farmers.

"If we can get two or three good spring rains, we'll have a cotton crop," said Woody Anderson, owner of Anderson Farms in Mitchell County. "But right now we don't have the underground moisture we need to plant."

Anderson, a member of the Rolling Plains Cotton Growers Association, said planting starts in mid-May and runs through the third week of June. Anderson typically plants between 2,500 and 3,000 acres of cotton each year.

"We are going to have to plant regardless," Anderson said. "It all depends on the moisture levels in the soil as to what types of seeds we use."

In Scurry County, where "cotton is king," experts are getting nervous about the extremely dry conditions.

"It certainly doesn't look good," said Greg Gruben, an agent for the Scurry County AgriLife Extension Office in Snyder. "We are in bad shape."

And the extremely high winds aren't helping the situation.

"We've got farmers trying to put out herbicides and the high winds are just blowing them away," Gruben said. "We don't want a situation where it needs to rain every time the cotton needs a drink, but it looks that way."

Some farmers in Scurry County, where around 60,000 acres of cotton is planted annually, are rotating crops and planting sorghum.

"It all depends on the sorghum prices," Gruben said.

Dirk Dunn, a cotton farmer who plants around 2,500 acres a year in Scurry and Mitchell counties, said he will plant despite the fact that Scurry County has received less than four-tenths of an inch of rain since January.

"We have to plant to make the deadline for crop insurance which is June 20," Dunn said. "We may just have to dry plant."

Dunn said some farmers are planting sorghum, but feral hogs are destroying those fields.

"If our cotton fields fail, we'll just leave the land idle," Dunn said of his acreage.

He added that the price of cotton is too low and production costs are on the rise.

Steve Estes, extension agent at the Jones County AgriLife Extension Office, said the outlook is "pretty bleak."

"We are going to need some moisture," he said.

Last year, cotton farmers in Jones County fared better than expected he said.

Anderson said he is still hopeful.

"We cotton farmers tend to be pretty superstitious, and even though it doesn't look too good right now, this is an odd-numbered year," Anderson said. "We did pretty good in 2005, 2007 and we are still counting on 2009 being a good year."